Norwegian Sun

Garrett

Age: 27

Occupation:Teacher

Number of Cruises: 4

Cruise Line: Norwegian

Ship: Norwegian Sun

Sailing Date: 2011-03-5

Itinerary: Carribean

We were absolutely ROBBED by this cruise line!!!!
My fiancee and I booked the cruise as a honeymoon package; it turned out to be a huge mistake. I've previously been on 4 other cruises (once on Carnival, twice on Royal Carribean and once on Norwegian, in that order) so I knew what to expect from the cruise line. I've always found Carnival to be a party cruise, Norwegian to be a "Silver" cruise (for the older folks) and Royal Carribean to be a great balance. Reluctantly, we chose to book NCL for our honeymoon cruise, even though I felt like there was not much offered for a younger person during my last NCL trip. About a week before we set sail, I happened upon this review site, and was stunned at the bad reviews. I figured we'd give it our best shot though, since we'd already booked. BIG MISTAKE. These bad reviews are all DEAD ON; absolutely correct, and then some.
When I went downstairs to file a formal complaint with them (read on to find out what all went wrong), I was told "I'm sorry sir, but every complaint you have made is out of my hands." Also, "I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise."

If you like eating the same buffet food everyday, this cruise is for you. The casual main dining room is closed until 5:30, so if you want a real meal (not buffet food) you have to DRESS UP to go the "Smart Casual" dining room. Freestyle Cruise, seriously? Only the buffet and "up-scale" dining rooms are open before 5:30. And once you get into the main dining room, you realize the portions are Kids Meal sized! Every meal featured the same, cold bread basket containing two peices of hard dinner rolls, 2 slices of rye bread, 2 slices of baguette and 2 wheat dinner rolls. Breakfast, Lunch and DInner, the SAME THING. No other choice. The Sports Bar was marginally good, on their best day. As for the premium (read you have to pay money to even get in!) restaurants: The French Bistro was $15 per person and unimpressive and the Hibachi restaurant was $25 per person. The Sushi restaurant was the only good dining spot on a boat of subpar cafeteria food. The food on Carnival and RC was 10 TIMES BETTER.

The only Positive thing I have to say about this cruise is that our Room Steward, Arvin, was OUTSTANDING. He was the only person who made us feel welcome on the WHOLE BOAT. He kept the room immaculate and fulfilled every request we had. HIS SERVICE was the ONLY aspect of the whole cruise that surpassed Carnival and Royal Carribean.

Jeopardy could've been better organized and conducted by a group of 2nd graders. The dance classes were a weak attempt at pacifying a crowd stuck at sea instead of in port. The best entertainment aboard that ship are the hired acts that put on the hypnotism, juggling and comedy shows. Followed closely by their employees talent show. Even though a lot of it was in "Engrish," it was obvious that many of them had amazing vocal talent, and some could sing and play an instrument.
The $10 drinks and $2.25 soda cans wore out their welcome quickly. Also, everytime they "give something away," prepare to be baited into a 30 minute sales pitch about Amber or get cornered by someone wanting to sell you a reservation to their premium restaurant. Also, their FREE Bingo tickets require that you sit through multiple games of paid Bingo before you can participate!
And the best liquor they had on board (which they FEATURED at a liquor tasting event the first day) wasn't available in ANY BAR on the cruise.

The Xcaret excursion in Cozumel picks you up off the pier beside the ship and takes you to Cancun (not a problem, but not advertised as such) on to return you just in time to the boat. No time to see Cozumel from within a distance of 100 ft.
DON'T book ANY excursions for Key West!!! You won't have enough time to do them!

This is where Norwegian Cruise Line's CHEAP business model showed, and we were ROBBED of our vacation:
One of the "Silver cruisers" went into cardiac arrest shortly after we left Cozumel and we immediately turned around to get them medical attention. That was completely understandable, except for the fact that due to the 3 hour delay, they CANCELLED the 10 hour Guatamala visit!!! They "gave" us a day at sea... I was willing to let that slide so that we could make the best of our honeymoon. Then, when we got to Key West, they made us go through Customs so we would get off their boat quicker on the last day. The cruise advertised a port time of 7a - 1p, but because they only had 2 customs officers checking EVERYONE'S info, we couldn't get off until 9:30a!!! And we were the 3rd floor to be called! Considering we had to catch a tram back to the bus no later than 12:15, we had only 3.5 hours of our advertised 6 HOURS in port!!